Missouri unveils new license plate design

The new license plate design to be used for Missouri's Bicentennial is seen Tuesday in the House Lounge at the Capitol. Missourians will receive the new plates no later than 2019.
The new license plate design to be used for Missouri's Bicentennial is seen Tuesday in the House Lounge at the Capitol. Missourians will receive the new plates no later than 2019.

Missourians will start getting new license plates no later than Jan. 1, 2019 - plates that celebrate the state's 200th anniversary in 2021 of being the 24th state to join the United States.

"Really what we're doing here is celebrating the bicentennial of the whole state," Rep. Glenn Kolkmeyer, R-Odessa, explained Tuesday, before unveiling an enlarged version of the new plate design.

Gary Kremer, head of the State Historical Society of Missouri, told the news conference: "This was no small task, to get a license plate that represented the state.

"One of our considerations was trying to identify something that said 'Missouri.'"

And they settled on Missouri's rivers as a key to the plate's design - especially the Mississippi on the east, the Missouri that splits the state and forms part of the western border, and the Osage.

Wavy lines across the top and bottom of the new plate symbolize the rivers.

"The Missouri River was the 'Interstate 70' of the early 19th century," Kremer explained, "and the Osage River was the main artery of trade and traffic into the Ozarks."

He noted the state's first lawmakers, meeting in St. Charles, determined the permanent state Capital - what now is Jefferson City - "had to be on the Missouri River and within 40 miles of the mouth of the Osage River."

The design also includes the red, white and blue colors of Missouri's state flag, and the official state seal is the backdrop over which the license plate letters and numbers will be placed.

Kolkmeyer noted the new plate design only replaces the current "bluebird" design.

"Specialized plates - if you have an MU or a Royals or Purple Heart or Firefighter," he said, naming just a few, "there are over a hundred of those, and those won't change at all."

The former chair of the House Transportation Committee said the proposal to change the plate's design came at a good time.

"We need, as a state, to redo our license plates about every 10 years," Kolkmeyer explained. "The last time it was done was 2007."

The committee that looked at various designs and voted unanimously for the new look included representatives of the state Revenue and Transportation departments, the Highway Patrol, Missouri Vocational Enterprises, the State Historical Society, and the chairmen of the House and Senate Transportation committees.

One key factor to choosing the final design, Kolkmeyer said, was the Highway Patrol's satisfaction law officers easily could see and read the information on the plates.

"Everything needed to be tested and approved by the Highway Patrol," Kolkmeyer said. "We had multiple samples that they took out and then brought back."

The Patrol endorsed the new design.

Missourians were able to view the various proposals online and register their opinions.

And the committee held four public hearings - in Kansas City, Springfield, St. Louis and Poplar Bluff.

"We had a lot of good input from the citizens," Kolkmeyer said, including the St. Louis Arch, the Kansas City Scout (a Native American sitting on horseback overlooking the Kansas River), the Pony Express and the Ozarks.

Ultimately, none of those made it to the final design.

"We didn't want it to be regional," Kremer told the News Tribune. "I think we generally - almost immediately - had agreement that it should be representative of the entire state."

Transportation Director Patrick McKenna - a New Hampshire native who's in his second year heading Missouri's transportation system - said he was honored to serve on the committee that selected the new design.

"It was interesting to hear some of the history and the references that were made" during the committee's meetings and public hearings, he said.